After a whole bunch of incredible business with the (not really sorta) philosopher's stone, finding out that Julian was Dr. Alchemy, and realizing that Alchemy was actually just Savitar using people to do his bidding, Barry and the gang had Julian channel Savitar so they could have a little chat.

Turns out Savitar is one nasty dude who comes from the future and is really, really angry at future Barry. In typical Flash villain form, he's mad that Barry will someday take everything from him, and having a great time lording his knowledge of the future over everybody at Star Labs.

Photos

Apparently, Savitar was directly linked to the stone, so Barry and Jay Garrick (who Barry had hopped over to Earth-19 to get help from) concocted a plan to run really really fast and throw the stone into the speedforce. It was a plan that involved speed siphoning, so naturally we were just kind of like "Okay."

It was actually kind of like a relay race, where Jay started off with the stone, then handed it off like a baton when Barry passed him. Of course, Barry accidentally landed five months in the future, only to watch himself watch Savitar ram a sword right through Iris' torso...which explains the disappearance of her name from the byline of that future article.

The CW

Barry then went back to the present and had to enjoy a Christmas celebration at Joe's house while pretending he didn't just watch the murder of his girlfriend, and present said girlfriend with her gift: an apartment! Apparently it's already time to move in together, even though Barry was unemployed up until five minutes ago, when his new friend Julian told him he could have his job back.

We guess Barry's never been one to move slow, but this is a little much.

Read

During a screening of last week's big crossover, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg teased the problem created by tonight's episode and what effect it will have on the season going forward.

"The midseason finale, episode nine, kind of creates a new problem for our heroes that they weren't anticipating, something that they've never faced before," Kreisberg told reporters. "It's so big, we're actually considering changing the saga sell from talking about Flashpoint to talking about that, because that's really what's driving the episodes for the rest of the season, actually. Flashpoint won't loom as large as the challenge that presents itself in 309."

Five months from now—when Iris' death supposedly takes place—is just about the time that season three of The Flash will be wrapping up, meaning we'll likely get to that moment in the season finale. Here's hoping she's not about to die just to make Barry Allen sad.